


A Life For a Life

by PandiBear



Series: The Butterfly Effect [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Butterfly Effect, Happy Ending?, I gave up, I'm tired, Just another character death, M/M, Of course not, Once again unbeta'ed, Small events can take a life, What even is editing?, it's 2am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:11:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7844413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandiBear/pseuds/PandiBear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small change in events can create a whole new future. Unfortunately they are not all positive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life For a Life

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 of The Butterfly Affect. I love how there are an infinite amount of scenarios for any one event. 
> 
> The character death is only implied but it is the death of a main character. 
> 
> As usual this is unbeta'ed and cross-posted to my Aff account.

The hallway was empty, only a lone figure was travelling through the thin passages. The smoke caused the narrow space to be dull, one could only see a few meters ahead before the dark cloud of smoke would cover the path ahead. The air was heavy, full of the toxic fumes from the smoke.

The brave (or foolish) man had a standard white hotel pillowcase pressed lightly over the bottom half of his face, the material covering his nose and mouth to help prevent himself from inhaling the dark gas. He stepped carefully through the hall, being careful of any possible trip hazards which could have been left in the rush to escape the thick smoke inside the upper floors of the building. 

Hansol travelled quickly, he knew his way around the building better than he knew his own home as he had been a dedicated worker at the hotel for just over two years.

Turning around the corning, he moved towards the room at the end of the 19th floor hallway, to the room where Mark had been staying.

Lee Minhyung, or Mark as most people new him, was a guest at the hotel. He knew the younger boy as he was here visiting Johnny, who was a close friend of Hansol himself, and Jeno, Johnny's younger brother. Hansol had met the boy a few times, mainly during the younger boys visits to Korea. The two had become friends and when Hansol had visited America with Yuta, they had stayed at Mark's apartment for the few they had been there.

Mark had come back to the hotel earlier that day with a foot injury, which he had gotten while playing basket ball only a few hours before. After speaking with him, the younger had promised to change rooms to one on a lower floor, this way he would be able to leave and get back to his room more easily.

Just 20 minutes before Hansol had been sitting, relaxed in the staff room on the 15 floor, enjoying his free time. News of the fires that had been set on the 18th to 20th floors had been sudden, causing panic which was quickly settled by a senior staff member. They were instructed to leave the building in a quiet and calm manner, helping guests leave the building when necessary, and only using the stairs as the lifts had been shut off as a safety precaution.

Following the instructions given, Hansol started to leave the building via the stairs. His escape was halted on the 11th floor when his phone began to buzz, notifying him of an incoming call, looking at the screen he saw 'Mark Lee' displayed on the screen. Thinking the boy had already left the building, Hansol answered the phone so he could reassure the boy that he was safe and on his way out. Before he could speak he heard a choked sob on the phone, thus should have been the warning sign but what Hansol could hear in the background was 10 times worse, the fire alarm. 

"Where are you?" Hansol rushed his sentence. The choked reply he received almost made his heart stop. "I'm in the 19th floor hallway", the boy breathed deeply, trying to keep him sobs back so he could speak clearly into the phone, before he continued "I couldn't leave, my foot-" Hansol interrupted, a look of understanding dawned on his face, "you injured it early, I thought you were changing rooms, so it would be easier to leave the building" Hansol quickly turned and started heading back up the stairs.

"I was going to do it, but I needed some help. I was about to call the front desk when the alarms started going off. I tried to use the elevators but they weren't working, so I called you." Hansol unconsciously nodded his head in understanding, his face serious as he realised the boy could be in danger if he stayed in the hall. "Mark I need you to calm down" he could tell the boy was close to panic by the deep breaths he could hear from the phone end of the phone. Hearing a noise of acknowlegdement from the boy, he continued. "I'm on my way help you, but first I need you to go back to your room-" he was interrupted by Mark but quickly spoke over the younger boy "and cover the bottom of your door with something, it will help to block out the smoke until I get there." 

He was about to hang up when he remembered another thing from is training course. "Before you put iti under your door try and wet it with cold water, it will help to prevent the fire from a few minutes if it does manage to spread."

Hansol listened carefully, his breathing heavy as he continued his journey up the emergency stairs. He heard heard the boy shuffling towards his room, sighing in relief when he heard the door click shut. On the other end he could hear the Mark looking for something, which he assumed was something to cover the bottom of the door. When he was sure the younger would be safe he ended the call, placicng the phone into his back pocket so he could focus on his current task.

Only a minute after he ended the call with Mark, Hansol felt his phone vibrate again with an incoming call, checking the phone he saw that it was Yuta, his fiancé, calling him. He looked at the phone for a second before choosing to ignore it, he didn't want to worry the younger boy by telling him the situation he was currenltly in as he would no doubt try coming to the building himself.

 

-:-:-:-

 

Warm light filtered in through the bay window, catching the edge of a picture frame and shattering into millions of tiny prisms that created the illusion of a rainbow where there wasn't one. It was comfortably quiet, the only sound being soft breaths accompanied by the occasional chirp of a bird or sound of passing car. Although the space was open and fairly large, it felt like home, every surface decorated with small memoirs and tokens that made it feel lived in.

A young man in his early twenties sat on the couch, leaning on the arm rest as he held an empty mug in his hands. The handsome Japanese man was a thousand miles away, his thoughts overtaking him as he smiled into the air, just thinking about his lover made him happy. He had hoped he could spend the day with Hansol, but work had other plans and his fiancé would not be able to come home for another two hours. 

Yuta finally had a day off and all he wanted to do was relax at home, not worrying about work, just thinking about himself for the whole day. He had the news playing on the TV but was not paying attention to whatever was being reported on. Yuta raised the mug only to drop his hand seconds later as he belatedly realised that there was no longer any coffee in the mug. he stood up slowly, stretching his arms up in the air and giving a large yawn as he did. Lazily, Yuta walked towards the kitchen, only stopping breifly in the hallway to stroke his cat who was laying on the floor, enjoying the sunlight comingn in from the nearby window.

Once he reached the kitchen he put the dirty mug in the sink, then slowly moved towards the kettle so he could put it on to boil. While waiting for the walked to heat up, Yuta sat down and started resting his head against the counter. From the living room he could hear a report of a fire in a local Seoul hotel. With nothing else to do, he listened to the broadcast, only for him to shoot in surprise and all but sprint to the living room when he heard the name of the hotel.

"For over thirty minutes, Jal Ja, a hotel in Western Seoul, was reported to have been set ablaze. It is currently speculated that the fire was a consequence of arson. The suspect is thirty-two year old, Kwon Sokyun, a former employee of the hotel. The police are currently looking for the suspect in order to take him into custody for further questioning......."

Yuta tuned the anchor woman's voice out, no longer able to hear anything over the deadheading sound of his heart beat. Anxious, he rushed to his phone and called Hansol. The phone kept ringing, with each unanswered ring Yuta became increasingly worried, when the phone eventually went to the answering machine, Yuta felt like his heart had stopped. 

'He'll be okay, he's probably got his phone on silent or something.' Trying to comfort himself, the Japanese man kept his thoughts positive and reassuring. After what seemed like hours, Yuta managed to pull himself together. He started rushing around, he pulled on the first set of decent clothing he could find, running to the door as soon as he had finished and grabbing his car keys as he was leaving.

'Everything will be fine, Hansol will be safe and we'll be able to go home together as soon as I get there.' Similar sentences were thought and mumbled as the boy got into his car and drove towards his chosen destination. 

 

-:-:-:-

 

The stairwell was quiet, only the muted sounds of the fore alarms ringing, and Hansol's heavy breathing could be heard.

Hansol walked as fast as he could down the stairs, which wasn't very fast at all as he was carrying an already passed out Mark on his back. 

The younger boy had been fine at first, walking with the support of Hansol, however it quickly became clear that he was not okay when he started saying he couldn't breathe when they were half way down the flight of stairs. At first Hansol assumed he was just out of breath, but this was quickly disproven when the boy collapsed, luckily not suffering a fall down the stairs as the older boy caught him before he could.

Hansol tried shaking the boy awake but gave up as it was obvious the boy would not be entering consciousness for a while, he just placed the younger on his back and proceeded down the stairs. 

After ten minutes, Hansol made it to the bottom floor of the hotel where he was immediately swarmed by firemen who escorted himbout of the building and towards an ambulance. As soon as they where close to the ambulance, Mark was taken from him so he could receive medical attention. A fireman then walked him over to another ambulance where he was sat down, a blanket was placed on his shoulders and a breathing mask was secured around his face. A nurse also came to check him over, they had to see if he had received any burns during the incident.

After minutes of sitting in the back of the ambulance, Hansol suddenly remembered he needed to call Yuta. He quickly did so, after only two rings the phone was answered and question after question was fired at him. "Are you okay? Where are you? Are you safe? Hansol? Hansol are you there?" 

"Yes, I'm at outside Jal Ja, I'm safe. Now stop asking so many questions at once, Hansol chuckled. Even after the whole situation he was faced with today, Yuta still managed to cheer him up just by talking. From the other side of the line, he heard his lover release a sigh of relief. 

"How did you know anyway?" Hansol asked curiously. "It's all over the news, do you know how scared I was when I saw? Or when I called you but you didn't answer the phone? I was terrified." Even over the phone, Hansol knew that his fiancé was close to tears, he could hear it clearly in his voice. 

"Honestly I was terrified as well." Hansol found himself admitting. The two hated having secrets in their relationship, they would only be a burden, so naturally he decided to share his experience with his other half. 

"What? Why? Didn't you leave with everyone else?" 

"I did-" Hansol began before he was promptly cut off by Yuta.

"Don't you lie to be Ji Hansol" 

"Okay, I didn't- no I couldn't" Hansol paused for a second, thinking wherever or not to tell Yuta what had happened. He decided he would tell him later. 

"Right now all I can tell you-" Hansol was once again cut off in the middle of his sentence, however this time he was not cut off by his fiancé, but by a loud crash coming from the other side of the phone.

"Yuta? Yuta? Are you there? Are you okay?" He expected to hear his lover answering back in a sarcastic tone, imitating Hansol's earlier phrase when he had bombarded the elder with his own questions.

The only reply he received was the cold, lifeless sound of the dial tone.

**Author's Note:**

> My inspiration has been non existent but I finally finished.  
> I know I haven't completed part 1 yet but I promise it's underway. 
> 
> If you have any questions or if you just want to talk you can find me on Twitter @IMnotYou99. I like speaking to new people so it would be great to hear from you. :)
> 
> As usual Kudos and comments are appreciated! 
> 
> Pandi (>^-^)>~ ❤


End file.
